Horizontally Challenged
by HelmetsHaveHoles
Summary: James Diamond and his friends are attending their first day of middle school, but someone is set to ruin it for them, particularly James.   Written for BTR archive's anti-bullying day, please review :   T just in case, one-sho


**Author's Note: I wrote this for the BTR archive's bullying awareness day. I hope everyone understands how hurt people can get because of bullying, for whatever ****reason. As a victim of bullying myself, I know how terrible it feels.**

***The bullying isn't really anything, but they're supposed to be sixth graders in this, so I thought it was okay.***

** Enough of my blabbering, I hope you enjoy, please review! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Big Time Rush, or McDonalds. **

James Diamond walked into his new school's cafeteria, looking around for his friends. Among the new sixth graders, he found his three best friends sitting at the end of one of the lunch tables, chatting away. Excitedly, he walked towards them, a grin on his face. He couldn't help but hear a group kids snicker as he passed by them, but he just brushed it off assuming they were laughing at something else.

"James!" his closest—and most hyper— friend Carlos screamed as he approached the table. He took a seat next to his blonde friend Kendall, sitting in front of Carlos and Logan. They all were as excited as James; it _was_ their first day of middle school after all.

"Hey guys!"

After a brief exchange of 'hey's', and 'how are you's' James and his friends eagerly started talking about their classes and exchanging schedules. Soon enough, they were directed to their homerooms, and introduced to the ways of middle school. It was amazing to James, and even more so since he met so many new people; there were three elementary schools combined in one to make the middle school, that way there were many more people.

The day continued, and James could still feel himself being stared down by the same students when he walked down the hall, or in his classes—he didn't have any classes with them. James checked his teeth twice for any food, and made sure there was no toilet paper stuck on his shoe every so often; he still couldn't understand what was making these kids so _interested_ in him?

"It's about time!" James exclaimed, as his friends and he entered the lunch line. The cafeteria was fairly small; with about ten tables, and ten seats per table. Since the boys weren't all too famous yet, they decided to sit at the same place they were in the morning. "I'm so hungry, I could eat a whole chicken," James said, patting his stomach as it rumbled inside of him.

"Uh oh," a tall boy with spikey blonde hair and sharp features said, sniggering. Two other boys, who synchronized the boy's every move, followed him, and the trio pushed James aside—causing Kendall, Carlos, and Logan to move back—and skipped him in line. James realized that these were the three boys who were staring and laughing throughout the day. "We better get our food before _someone_ eats it all!"

"What was that for?" James screamed. "We need to get our food!"

"Look, fatso's getting mad," the boy mocked, "Let's get our lunch and run away before he eats us _and _the nerd!" the boy looked at Logan, who looked down immediately, made a scared face, and then grabbed his tray from the lunch lady. His possey looked at James, snorted, and followed in suit.

James saw his friends looking at him, and felt weird. He'd been called chubby before, but not a 'fatso'. No one thought that he'd eat him or her. The overweight boy forced a smile at his friends, to tell them he didn't care, and quickly thanked the lunch lady as he grabbed his lunch tray.

"Mmm, pizza..." James mumbled, as he started to eat.

"Don't listen to Jett," Kendall said, taking a bite of his own pizza.

"Yeah, he doesn't know what he's saying. He's in Kendall and my math class, and he's just stupid. And I'm _not_ a nerd!" Logan added, rolling his eyes.

"I don't mind…" James lied, his mouth full of pepperoni pizza. He didn't want his friends fighting with those boys just because he felt bad.

James' last class: PE. In elementary, the kids never had to change before they played, they just played. "And what's worse, is that if you don't change on time, you get a tardy!" Carlos exclaimed, as he and James walked inside the locker room. Kendall and Logan had PE before them, and Logan had spilled the beans, and told Carlos all about the Physical Education class.

"Woah!" James exclaimed, as they both opened their bags and reached for their clothes. His mom had packed him a large shirt and comfortable shorts to wear as his gym clothes, and a small roll on deodorant in case it got too hot. Some boys were already in the locker room, taking off their shirts, or already shirtless. James couldn't help but sneak peeks at the other boys' bodies. They were all fairly thin, or they had a little bit of chub. Some of the boys even had small muscles, including Carlos. James suddenly felt uncomfortable. He didn't have a little stomach, or little arms. He barely had a neck!

"C-Carlos, I think I'll change in the bathroom stall…." James stammered, as he watched Carlos strip off his jeans.

"Why? Just do it now, we're going to get late!" the Latino boy said, stopping to look at his friend. Carlos didn't understand James' sudden insecurity, but he was bathroom stalls looked small, and it'd take James time to change inside such a small space. Also he could see most of the boys leaving already.

"Fine," James whined, taking off his shirt.

"Look what we have here!" a familiar voice said, and James whipped around. Jett and one member of his posse were standing in front of James, smirking. "The fat boy's going to play PE! Can you even _run_, you fat beast?"

"Cut it out!" Carlos snapped, seeing the hurt in James face. "Ignore him, James. Just change." He shot Jett as mean of a glare he could, even though he wasn't one for being mean. James had always been sensitive since his father had left, and his three best friends knew that.

James followed his friend's command, but felt the tears sting his eyes.

"Whatever, loser. See ya, tubby." They muttered, running off to the gym.

"He's so dumb, just forget about him, okay?" Carlos said, as James put on his sneakers. "You're not fat."

"You're lying," James mumbled.

"No I'm not. Why would I lie to you? I'm your friend. Now come on, we'll be late."

James waited for his mom, Brooke Diamond, to come pick him up. She was a busy lady, but she always wanted to try and pick her son up after school. When her husband left, she wanted to give James all the love she could; and she loved seeing his face light up when she picked him up in her Mercedes, James' favorite car.

"Tubby! Who ya waitin' for? The ice cream truck?" Jett teased, smirking. James looked around to see himself face to face with Jett. "Why don't you say something?" he asked, poking James' skin. "Haha! Look at this!" he said, laughing bitterly and poking James' again. "You're so fat!"'

"Why are you bothering me?" James managed to say, his voice barely audible.

"No one likes you." Jett said. "You're fat, and you're ugly." Jett screamed, in James' face. He pushed him down, onto the grass, making James' scream. "I hate you, _everyone_ hates you." Jett's posse nodded behind him, and started to laugh. "If your friends didn't hate you, then where are they?" James started to think, where _were_ they? "Yeah, they're not here! They don't care about you, fat-ass!" the three boys said. Jett kicked James in the stomach, and ran off with his friends.

After a lot of struggling, James got up and scrambled to his feet, tears daring to fall out of his eyes. Not many people were there, just some peers of his who he'd never talked to before. They were there the whole time, and they didn't help him. Where were his friends though? He knew perfectly well that they didn't ride the bus home, but where were they? What if Jett was right? What if everyone _did_ hate him?

_Beep beep! _Sounded a horn. James looked up and saw a black, shiny Mercedes. His mom's. He wiped the tears that were on the brim of his eyes, and headed into the car.

"Hey sweetie!" she said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. He smiled back at her, trying to make it look genuine. "Did you have a fight with Carlos?"

"No, why?"

"I was driving here, and I saw him running away. So I just thought he was upset, or something. Never mind though. How was your day?"

_Wait? Carlos was there? He was running? Obviously, he was running away so he wouldn't have to help me. He does hate me. Everyone…hates…me, Jett was right. _James thought, instantly frowning. He looked at his mom, and saw her smiling at him. Fighting the urge to cry, he bared his teeth and grinned, trying to forget about what his mom informed him of.

The car ride was a mildly long one; James lived on the other side of the district—a good twenty miles away—where all the mansions and fancier houses were. James told his mom all about school, excluding the parts including Jett. Even though he didn't seem like it, the situation bugged him the whole way.

"Mom…am I fat?" James finally asked, when he couldn't handle it.

"No dear, you're not. You're just…horizontally challenged!" she exclaimed. "Now, do you wanna grab a happy meal from Mcdonalds?"

"No mom!" James snapped, agitated. No one liked him, he was fat and stupid and no one liked him. "You're really not helping…"

James couldn't stop thinking about those bullies, and what they said. Everyone _did_ hate him. His friends were just too nice, his family had no choice but to be related to him, and his parents hated him too. Especially his dad, that's why he left.

"James," his mom screamed from downstairs, as James lied on his bed, thinking again about everything that happened today. "Carlos is here to meet you!" The chubby boy perked up at once. "I'm sending him upstairs!"

"James," Carlos said. He was always fast, but James didn't expect him to be up a flight of stairs in half a minute, and see James lying down on his bed, a mess. "How are you?"

"What do you want?" James mumbled now sitting up, watching Carlos take a seat next to him on the bed.

"What's wrong buddy?" Carlos said, taken aback.

"Don't what's wrong buddy me! You saw what Jett and his crew did to me," James said, annoyed. Carlos looked down, a little guilty. "Yeah, you can't even deny it. I know. I bet you were laughing at me with Kendall and Logan,"

"What? No! I wasn't…James, how could you even think that? I was running to my house. I wanted to call my dad to tell him that Jett was bullying you, so he could call his parents and tell them what he was doing. The school doesn't help at all, we all know that. If my dad called, then his parents would make Jett stop. I know I shouldn't have ran away, but I got scared, and you know I don't like fighting…" Carlos explained, looking down. James' looked at his small friend, and saw in his eyes that he was saying the truth.

"Really?" James asked, breaking into a smile.

"Yep. I don't think he'll be bothering you anymore, buddy." Carlos smiled, patting his friends back. "And you're _not_ fat, okay? Everyone who says that's going to have to deal with me, _and_ Kendall and Logan. Alright? So even if Jett still tries and hurts you, he has a lot comin' for him."

"Thank you Carlos," James said, giving his best friend a big bear hug. "You're the best." They released each other's embrace, and looked at each other. "But maybe, I should start exercising a little." James said, patting his stomach.

"A little exercise won't hurt," Carlos said, grinning from ear to ear.

"**Aww, wasn't that sweet?' Nope, it really wasn't. The ending wasn't supposed to be so happy, and it was supposed to be way more meaningful. I'm sorry. This story is inspired from personal experience, since a situation like this happened to my friend when she was in fifth grade (young, I know) and I remember her telling our group of friends how this friend of hers called her officer dad (like Carlos), and all of that. So it just fit. This story sounded **_**much**_** better in my head, but came out terrible. Thanks for bearing with it, if you've actually finished it. Please review and give me some critiques, I'd love to hear from you all :) **


End file.
